Life After Life After Death
April 23, 2008
That’s a phrase coined, I believe, by N. T. Wright. As I understand it he is referring to what life will be like in eternity.
I’ve been teaching through Hebrews and the writer/preacher of Hebrews shapes his message about faith in chapter eleven around a hopeful future. Those examples of faith believed God even when they did not live to see God’s promises fulfilled in their day. Their faith was a hopeful faith based on a vision of a world/kingdom that God would bring into being.
But if we are to live out that same sort of hopeful faith I believe we need a hopeful vision of the world/kingdom that God will bring into being as well, and that brings us to thoughts of heaven. But what is heaven like? What will life be like at the end of the age when God defeats the last enemy and becomes all in all?
John Eldredge writes about our (mis)conceptions of heaven as an “everlasting sing-along.” Is that what we have to look forward to? Will angels be playing harps to Fanny Crosby hymns? What exactly is life after life after death going to be like?
That is a question that we will be discussing in our Bible study this coming Sunday. What are your ideas? How would you respond to the question: “What will eternity be like?”
Randy Alcorn has written a few books about heaven. He has a very interesting perspective on it. He thinks contrary to what most pastors teach. He thinks we won’t know everything instantly when we get there. That we’ll continue to learn and understand as we spend time with the Father and with the saints. Who knows.
Paul,
There’s some blog buzz about NT Wright’s lecture last night, which was related to his latest book. You may have already found these blogs, but if not…
http://gospeldrivenchurch.blogspot.com/2008/04/agents-of-new-creation.html
http://www.gavoweb.com/hit_the_back_button_to_mo/2008/04/an-evening-with.html
Wright quoted Starbucks’ “The Way I See It #230″ cup –
“Heaven is totally overrated. It seems boring. Clouds, listening to people play the harp. It should be somewhere you can’t wait to go, like a luxury hotel. Maybe blue skies and soft music were enough to keep people in line in the 17th century, but Heaven has to step it up a bit. They’re basically getting by because they only have to be better than Hell.”
– Joel Stein
Columnist for the Los Angeles Times.
If that’s the message we’re giving the world, boy, have we missed it!
Camel Rider,
I’ve seen some of Randy Alcorn’s writings (mostly what he’s written for children, which is pretty solid, in my opinion). Thanks for mentioning him.
Steve,
That’s a really interesting quote. I haven’t seen the blog discussion on Wright, but I’ll check them out. Thanks for the links!
[…] to Steve Walker for the N. T. Wright links. Another good resource I used was Wright’s Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on […]